Ukraine civilians forced to flee after failed peace talks

World Today

In Ukraine, Kiev has issued an appeal for urgent international military aid. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has plans to visit Ukraine Thursday to demonstrate support.
Meanwhile, It has been reported dozens of civilians, soldiers and rebels have been killed in fierce fighting in the east. This comes a day after an effort to renew peace talks failed.
CCTV’s Kate Parkinson reported this story from Ukraine.

Peace talks aimed at ending the bloodshed in eastern Ukraine ended in failure on Saturday. Kiev’s representative and separatist envoys accused each other of sabotaging the meeting which ended with no ceasefire deal or agreement to pullback heavy weapons.

This is not a conflict that looks like it’s going to end soon.

The war has dragged on for months with more than 5,000 casualties.

A ceasefire agreement from September, which was never fully enforced has completely collapsed.

But any hopes that a new truce deal would be reached on Saturday were quickly dashed.

As representatives from Kiev and the rebel territories met in Minsk separatist forces were dug in, reinforcing their front line positions and continuing their offensive.

The fighting has been particularly fierce around the Ukrainian-held town of Debal’tseve, about 80 kilometers, just under 50 miles northeast of Donetsk.

The rebels said they have Kiev’s forces surrounded.

“This artillery unit is going to prevent the Ukrainians from breaking through. The Debal’tseve containment, have you heard about it? We closed it. They are totally surrounded,” Rebel commander Esaul said. “The area is completely under our control. Our president proposed for them to surrender. But those who cannot, who didn’t hear about it, or who don’t want to. They will meet their damnation here.”